Alumni Spotlight: Bob Golic

ClevelandBrowns.com looks back at the career of Bob Golic in this Alumni Spotlight feature, presented by Cuyahoga Community College Alumni & Friends Association.

Bob Golic made a lot of bone-crunching hits in the 1980s on the way to becoming one of the best defensive lineman in Browns history.

And in the process, he also struck the funny bone of everybody who watched him play, making him among the more popular players to wear a Browns uniform.

Those memories are likely to invoke a lot of smiles from the fans at Cleveland Browns Stadium on Sunday as Golic serves as the club’s honorary captain for the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Golic was a nose tackle in the Browns’ 3-4 defensive alignment from 1982-88 after being claimed off waivers at from New England, where he had played the first three years of his NFL career as a linebacker.

“When I first got here, they said, ‘Your job is to occupy the center and both guards, to keep them away from the linebackers because they make money than you do,’ ” Golic recalled several years later. “I asked them about tackles and they said, ‘You don’t have to make tackles. Just let people hit you.’ ”

It was just one of his many humorous quips during his seven seasons with the Browns.

A three-time Pro Bowler, Golic up in Willowick in the eastern Cleveland suburbs and starred in football and wrestling at St. Joseph High School.

Now 55, he lives with his wife, Karen, and their family in Solon, Ohio, and works as a radio talk show host at WNIR-FM in Akron.